Maybe it’s the jetlag from my (cough, cough) recent excursion to Seoul (on which more later, clearly) but I kinda agreed with a lot of what Graham Reid wrote in his I Can’t Believe it’s Not a Cure Concert Review before I realised it was a parody. Not reading being much of a Herald reader I hadn’t read the Dylan Review in question, so I sorta missed the joke.

For anyone else similarly suffering from being dense, can I assure you in advance that my own thought’s on last night’s Cure concert are a) honest, b) without irony and c) probably worth skipping altogether, since the concert was a day ago now and even if I say it was really good you can’t travel back in time and go to it on my recommendation…

…or can you?

No, you can’t.

The Cure: Vector Arena, Auckland, 14 August 2007.

First let me state: Big Cure fan. Or certainly I was a big Cure fan, I haven’t bothered with the past couple of albums. I’m sure they have their moments, but they have been sounding a bit samey-samey, which was one thing I liked about albums one through ten.

I used to be in a Cure covers band. Which as a keyboardist was a lot more successful than the two weeks I spent in an AC/DC covers band. Although it wouldn’t have done me last night, as the Cure circa 2007 have four members, one more than the early days, and one fewer than at another time.

So to the gig. Three hours was the rumour, and three hours we got. Graham says he could’ve done with half an hour less, I’d push that up to an hour, but then again I’m also acutely aware of my MTV-generation attention span. And also, with the Cure meaning so many things to so many people, I’d just be removing the songs I’m not so fond of, which could well be the tunes the couple beside me fell in love to (particularly if they’re younger and have a better appreciation of the last few albums).
But even so, there was what felt like a generally poorly-received lull that started with “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep” and ended a few songs later. The beer line certainly grew exponentially during that time.

The songs seemed loosely grouped together by album – three of the four singles from Disintegration (Lovesong, Lullaby and Pictures of You) were all played in a row, although they needn’t have been. And here’s my one main complaint. Maybe they’re trying to fill a gap left by having no keyboardist providing underlying atmospherics, but could they just tone down the flanger/phaser/delay effect on the guitars occasionally? With almost every song receiving the same treatment, it felt like the whole concert was being staged in a flooded coal mine, and many songs lost the dynamics that made them unique in the first place, two examples being The Blood and Hot Hot Hot!!!

I can’t remember whether it was three or four encores we were treated to, but the inclusion of Faith as an end to one of them was either a rare treat for die-hard fans, or a drawn-out dirge for those unfamiliar with the song from 1981’s eponymous album. But I think the same could be said for much of the evening. Three hours is a fan-only affair. If you like Friday I’m in Love and “The One about the Spider” (one of two songs the Stuff’s reviewer couldn’t get right – where are those Fairfax subs/Cure fans when you need ‘em?) then you would be bored after an hour – about the time I was jiggling in my seat to one of my vaguely-obscure personal faves, Push.

Even my attention was waning a little towards the end, and without repeating the All Blacks ahead by 60 analogy Graham has already poked fun at, my date did point out the similarity to the Blues trouncing someone at Eden Park – as the encore began, those eager to beat the traffic fled.

But oh what they missed! Finally the overblown effects units on the guitars had something of a short-circuit, and the Cure emerged if not looking, then sounding something like their late-70s selves (of which, it should be noted for accuracy, Smith is the only remaining member). The energy was well up, and bassist Simon Gallup, who had spent all night looking like he’d be a better fit in a punk band – lanky, toned, stooped and tattoed – finally made sense, as they whipped through almost a medley of tracks from the first album, including Fire In Cairo, Jumping Someone Else’s Train, 10:15 Saturday Night and Grinding Halt.

I’m thinking that even if you didn’t know those tracks word for word, you’d still have had as broad a smile as I did when the final chords rang out.

(PS: I have no sub, nor claim to. This post is bound to be riddled with mistakes.)

24 responses to this post

Damian, there are Cure geeks more attentive than you and I. For completists, here's the full setlist. From my vantage point down the front I also felt the lull during the second hour, but the three encores more than made up for it.

Just as a not unrelated aside, is there any band/artist with any kind of longevity whose later stuff was better than their earlier stuff?Cure, Stones, Ramones, AC/DC, Bowie, Floyd, Elton, Genesis, etc etc...

On it's original 7" with Killing An Arab on the flip, it's one of the 70s great singles IMO...and I'd argue they never bettered it. Pop perfection.

Completely agree. I can remember that single well although never owned it. I do have a mate though, who has a lovely collection of vinyl punk singles by the likes of UK Subs, The Damned, Subway Sect, Clash and loads more. Proper works of art.

For a more up to date fix, there's a fantastic punk/new wave compilation called "1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave 1976-1979" 5 CD's of stone cold classics and a load of lesser known stuff that I imagine would be extremely hard to find elsewhere. So for every Sex Pistols and Ramones tune there's "19 & Mad by Leyton Buzzards or "I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher" by the Not Sensibles, "F*ck Off" by the The Electric Chairs and "Gabrielle" by The Nips.

The more oblique end of the scale is well covered too by Wire, Swell Maps, Pere Ubu etc...

Yeah, Peter I have that thing...lovely box with badges stuck to the front. I'm lucky enough to own dozens of originals from the same period, piccy sleeves etc...one of the benefits of age, Jam, Clash, Damned, Ramones, all the early Pistols (EMI NZ Anarchy) and many more including lots of one offs with very cool garage graphics, gatefold sleeves, coloured or clear vinyl....

I'm lucky enough to own dozens of originals from the same period, piccy sleeves etc...one of the benefits of age, Jam, Clash, Damned, Ramones, all the early Pistols (EMI NZ Anarchy)

I remember being at Camden market in the mid-late '80s and they had a huge selection of classic punk vinyl singles and I'd gaze at them sweaty-palmed knowing I couldn't buy any of them because (a) I had no money and (b) I was basically living out of a bag. I do still have a few tucked away in the record collection though.

One thing I do have is an original 12" of The Suburban Reptiles "Megaton" single that I bought in Christchurch in the early '80s (may have even been off Roger). I'm sure someone told me this was NZ's first 12" single but have no idea whether that's actually true or not?

(PS: I have no sub, nor claim to. This post is bound to be riddled with mistakes.)

No worse than usual - a couple of dangling participles, 4 split infinitives, an over-abundance of puncuational operatives and a tragically missed opportunity of displaying your newly-honed skills in the area of gerunds.

No worse than usual - a couple of dangling participles, 4 split infinitives, an over-abundance of puncuational operatives and a tragically missed opportunity of displaying your newly-honed skills in the area of gerunds.

actually the humble 7"has had quite a revival in the UK, most indie bands releasing their singles in the format these days. Conch had a thing in their newsletter about a 400% increase in sales over the past few years.

I'm sure someone told me this was NZ's first 12" single but have no idea whether that's actually true or not?

It was, and I can put my hand up and say that was my idea. Phonogram who distributed it has to be forced into it very reluctantly. You did well to find a new copy in the 1980s too, only 500 were pressed in early 78. It was gold in AK by 81 and I was going to do a 7" repress of both Reptiles singles as a doublepack but for some reason never got around to it...

It was from Camus, they did change it, wikipedia link above, and I'm thinking of other songs that didn't rock the boat but maybe should have,Holiday In Cambodia, Dead Kennedy'sCharlie Don't Surf, The ClashAnd then I'm thinking about political songs and pop, haven't Pearl Jam recently been censored for anti-Bush lyrics?

Camus was kind of ambivalent about Arabs and his upbringing in Algeria colours all his works. Being a pied-noir was explored in his unfinished novel, 'The First Man'. I went through a huge Camus phase but for the longest time I didn't notice the significance of the lyrics of that Cure song.

It was, and I can put my hand up and say that was my idea. Phonogram who distributed it has to be forced into it very reluctantly. You did well to find a new copy in the 1980s too, only 500 were pressed in early 78. It was gold in AK by 81 and I was going to do a 7" repress of both Reptiles singles as a doublepack but for some reason never got around to it...

Excellent, really nice to know some of the history behind it. I've always been hacked off I didn't snag a single copy of Saturday Night as well.

I think I got it in either 1982 or even 83. It may have been a copy at the Uni of Canterbury Book Shop with Steve Birss behind the counter. I remember Vince Oi from The Johnnys (Chch) offered me $100 for it in 1984.

I like to dream that it has some value nowadays. It's still in very nice nick.

I like to dream that it has some value nowadays. It's still in very nice nick.

Original Sat Nite went on TradeMe for NZ $550 a while back. Megaton is much rarer and almost never comes up anywhere but one went in the US for USD$600 recently. If you have the first press (200...you can tell by the label...the first run had the Roger Dean label, I insisted on it as some sort of silly punk snipe at hippie-dom...the second run has a black and white Vertigo label) it's worth the most, as the $600 one was the second, bigger, run